The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 243

it is felt to be no time for ordinary conversation, much less for frivolous gossip, though under such a. veil anxiety is often hid. CoNcLusroN. By the Law was the knowledge of sin, but by the gospel is proclaimed its remedy, forgiYeuess and sanctification through Christ. 'l'he priest was not depen- dent upon his own judgment, but was guided by fixed rules in deciding upon leprous cases. Yet he did not heal ; the sufferer was left to nature's care, and to indulge the '"ague hope of recovery .. 'l'he gosp~l bids ~l~ sinners lay aside their fears and rejoice in a. panacea that never fails. The 1nterpos1t1on of God by prophets which resulted in miraculous cures of leprosy prepared the way for the marvellous works of the Redeemer, who evinced by bis restoring the body to health his power also to heal the soul. Thus what was faintly foreshadowed under the old dispensation has been brightly revealed in the new. The enumeration of the feelings appropriate to the sinner is incomplete, therefore, without adding to them hope, in the sense not of wishful longing, but of certain anticipation of salvation.-S. R. A. Ver. 3.-" It is a plague of leprosy." Tlte chosen type of sin-its individual aspect. The conjecture that leprosy was contracted by the children of Israel in the hot and dusty brick-fields of Egypt is probable enough. The definition that it was "any severe disease spreading on the surface of the body in the way described in the chapter, and so shocking of aspect . . . that public feeling called for separation," is near enough for our purpose. There can be no question that it was the divinely chosen type of sin. All disease is pictorial of sin. It is to our bodily frame the very thing that sin is to our soul. Sin is the derangement or disorder of the soul, as sickness is of the body. It is an inward disorder, showing itself in some outward manifestation of a displeasing or painful character. It is something wrong within-some faculty (organ) not doing what it was made to do, or doing what it was not meant to do, causing disturba.nce and distress. But leprosy was selected by the Divine Ruler of Israel as a. disease which should be regarded by bis people as specia.lly typical and suggestive of sin. It was admirably fitted so to be, whether looked at in its individual or in its social aspect. We will take the former first. I. THE OBSCURITY OF ITS OBIGIN. By what sad and strange process came it to pass that man's bodily frame-fashioned by the Divine Creator, made clean and pure, wholesome and fair-has become the seat of such a. foul disorder? How can it be that the little child whose flesh is beautiful and spotless, the very picture of all that is clean and sweet, grows up into a man who is "full of leprosy," covered from head to foot with revolting sores? .And whence came sin into the soul and life of man? How came it here to blot and mar God's fair creation? How comes it to pass that into the hea.rt of the innocent and lovely child there enters the very vilest spirit, showing itself in the most shocking words and the most revolting deeds, in later life? II. !Te STUBBOBNNEBB. When, after seven days, the Hebrew priest could see no signs of true leprosy, he did not pronounce the patient clean: he shut him up other seven days (ver. 5), and examined him again. Leprosy was a tenacious and stubborn disease, disappearing and reappea.ring. .After a long interval it might, under exciting cause, come once again to the surface. How like the affliction of the soul-sin I How tenacious is its hold on the human heart! It disappears and we are grateful, con- gratulatory, triumphant. But the inducing circumstances, the favourable conditions arise and conspire, and behold there is its ha.teful face again. We "would do good," we resolve to do good, but, alas I "evil is present with us" once more (Rom. vii. 21). III. lTs DEATHFULNEBB. The outward appea.rance was due to inward dera.ngement; the sprino-s of health were poisoned; the internal processes necessa.ry to health were sbtyed; a~d the consequence was that feature after feature, limb after limb, decayed and fell away. The ma.n was in a constant process of dissolution. It was death above the ground-death in a living form I Sin is dea.t.h. The soul that lives in sin is "dead while it lives." It is not that which it was crea.ted to be, does not that which it was created to do. Its spiritual faculties (the organs and members of the soul) are in a. state of continual dissolution, becoming feebler and feebler, till they a.re wholly lost. It is a living death, IV. hs INOUBAllLENESB BY MAN. The Jews did not bring the physician to the leper; OH, XIII, 1-4.6.] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 207